Butch
05-14-2003, 07:00 AM
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there hasn't been anything mentioned at all here about the bombing in Saudi Arabia. I don't remember seeing anything, and a search turned up nothing.
Are people here just sick of discussing international events/national security?
Do people here deem the bombing to be not important enough to warrant a thread? (In light of some of the "news" posted here, I can't imagine that is true)
Are people here just apathetic since it didn't happen in the US and it succeeded in killing ONLY about 8 Americans?
What are people's thoughts?
If there are people who are not quite familiar with what I am talking about . . . here's an article on what happened . . .
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB105281177966063900,00.html
Al Qaeda Links to Saudi Attacks
Suggest Network Remains Potent
By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV and DAVID S. CLOUD
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
U.S. and Saudi officials have found multiple signs of an al Qaeda connection to Monday's synchronized attacks in Saudi Arabia, suggesting the terror network remains capable of striking significant targets despite 20 months of U.S.-led efforts to dismantle it.
Suicide bombers killed at least eight Americans, among at least 34 people overall, when they shot their way into Western housing compounds in Riyadh and set off at least three massive, coordinated car bombs Monday night. It would be the boldest attack on a U.S. target by al Qaeda since Sept. 11, 2001, coming after top U.S. officials have talked of major progress in the terror war now that regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq are vanquished.
The bombers struck deep inside Osama bin Laden's home capital, where the al Qaeda leader has long hoped to destabilize a regime that now faces rising anti-American sentiment over Iraq. They targeted employees of a U.S. company that trains the Saudi national guard, which provides security to the royal family. (See related article1) The attacks came just hours before Secretary of State Colin Powell began a visit to Saudi rulers in Riyadh on a tour partly aimed at calming Arab resentment.
The bombings followed a U.S.-issued warning that just such a strike might be imminent. They also followed a failed Saudi effort last week to capture a cell of 19 suspected terrorists whom they now believe were connected to the bombers. In that raid near the site of the bombings, authorities seized weapons and explosives that may have been intended for the attacks. A U.S. official said that two car bombs each were used at two of the three housing compounds -- the first car apparently clearing a path for the second -- but that only one appears to have been used at the third location, where the attackers had to fight their way through a guarded front gate using small-arms fire.
Extreme anti-American groups are enjoying newfound support within Saudi Arabia. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdelaziz urged Saudis to help arrest the 19 suspected terrorists. Hours later, Saudi dissidents say, three prominent clerics of a new generation of al Qaeda supporters -- Ali al Khudeir, Nasser al Fahd and Ahmed al Khalidi -- issued a fatwa, or religious decree, that called on believers to do just the opposite: provide the fugitives with shelter and help.
"It's a new environment," said Saad al Faqih, head of the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, the main nonviolent Saudi dissident organization abroad. "There is a completely different scene as far as the hostility against the U.S. -- and the society itself is providing a natural shelter and protection to al Qaeda members."
The Central Intelligence Agency believes that several of the men who escaped the Saudi raid were connected to al Qaeda, including Abdulrahman Mansour Jabarah, the brother of a suspected al Qaeda operative taken into U.S. custody last year.
Officials in Washington said they had been told by Saudi officials that one suspect believed to be connected to Monday night's bombings was in custody. A team of Federal Bureau of Investigation officials, led by Deputy Assistant Director John Pistole, is headed for Riyadh to assist in examining the scene for clues.
The suspected al Qaeda links suggest that the terror group has maintained or restored a system for planning and coordinating multiple attacks. The targets of the attacks suggest the group still wants to pursue Mr. bin Laden's agenda of driving Americans out, and shaking the Saudi government.
Many in Saudi Arabia fear there is worse to come. Small-scale attacks on Westerners and shootouts between terror suspects and police have become increasingly frequent in the once-tranquil nation. Mohsen al Awajy, a prominent Islamist activist in Riyadh and a former political prisoner, warned that Monday's blasts are just the opening shot of a new al Qaeda offensive -- in part designed to prove that America hasn't destroyed it by arresting masterminds of previous attacks.
"We are worrying about the future and are expecting more," Mr. Awajy said. "This may be a new generation of al Qaeda, an al Qaeda No. 2 -- with the same ideology. It's a real challenge, not only for the Saudi people, but for the American administration."
President Bush promised to hunt down those responsible for the attacks. "These despicable acts were committed by killers whose only faith is hate, and the United States will find the killers, and they will learn the meaning of American justice," he said in Indianapolis.
The challenge that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia face in rooting out support for terrorist groups is especially difficult because many Saudis -- while opposing terror attacks -- share the attackers' hostility to the U.S. Such widespread anti-Americanism makes it hard for the government to openly cooperate with the U.S., and to crack down on religious leaders who provide justification for killing Americans.
Mr. bin Laden has long used the American military presence in Saudi Arabia, the site of Islam's two holiest shrines, as a key reason for anti-American terror. Just a few weeks ago, in response to pressure both in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. to create distance between the two governments, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the withdrawal of the bulk of American forces present in the kingdom since 1990. But the fury felt by many Saudis about the American occupation of Iraq, the seat of Islam's early caliphs, has largely eclipsed any goodwill fostered by the American pullout.
While the extent of Monday's bombings surpassed anything seen in Saudi Arabia so far, the attack itself was no surprise. There have been a series of bombings of Western expatriates' cars in the kingdom in recent years -- attacks that, until a few months ago, the Saudi government blamed on "gang wars" between Western alcohol smugglers.
Earlier this month, the London-based al Majalla Arabic newspaper published what it said was an e-mail from al Qaeda's new spokesman, Thabet bin Qais. The e-mail warned about an imminent attack against Americans and said that al Qaeda has reconstituted itself using operatives with a "good cover" who are unknown to Western intelligence services. "American security agencies still are ignorant of the changes that the leadership has made," the e-mail boasted.
It was only this month that Prince Nayef stopped insisting that al Qaeda doesn't operate in the kingdom. The U.S. advised Americans on May 1 to defer nonessential travel to Saudi Arabia because terror groups "may be in the final phases of planning terror attacks against U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia." Tuesday, the U.S. ordered its nonessential personnel to leave and sharpened its warning to citizens not to travel there.
Are people here just sick of discussing international events/national security?
Do people here deem the bombing to be not important enough to warrant a thread? (In light of some of the "news" posted here, I can't imagine that is true)
Are people here just apathetic since it didn't happen in the US and it succeeded in killing ONLY about 8 Americans?
What are people's thoughts?
If there are people who are not quite familiar with what I am talking about . . . here's an article on what happened . . .
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB105281177966063900,00.html
Al Qaeda Links to Saudi Attacks
Suggest Network Remains Potent
By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV and DAVID S. CLOUD
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
U.S. and Saudi officials have found multiple signs of an al Qaeda connection to Monday's synchronized attacks in Saudi Arabia, suggesting the terror network remains capable of striking significant targets despite 20 months of U.S.-led efforts to dismantle it.
Suicide bombers killed at least eight Americans, among at least 34 people overall, when they shot their way into Western housing compounds in Riyadh and set off at least three massive, coordinated car bombs Monday night. It would be the boldest attack on a U.S. target by al Qaeda since Sept. 11, 2001, coming after top U.S. officials have talked of major progress in the terror war now that regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq are vanquished.
The bombers struck deep inside Osama bin Laden's home capital, where the al Qaeda leader has long hoped to destabilize a regime that now faces rising anti-American sentiment over Iraq. They targeted employees of a U.S. company that trains the Saudi national guard, which provides security to the royal family. (See related article1) The attacks came just hours before Secretary of State Colin Powell began a visit to Saudi rulers in Riyadh on a tour partly aimed at calming Arab resentment.
The bombings followed a U.S.-issued warning that just such a strike might be imminent. They also followed a failed Saudi effort last week to capture a cell of 19 suspected terrorists whom they now believe were connected to the bombers. In that raid near the site of the bombings, authorities seized weapons and explosives that may have been intended for the attacks. A U.S. official said that two car bombs each were used at two of the three housing compounds -- the first car apparently clearing a path for the second -- but that only one appears to have been used at the third location, where the attackers had to fight their way through a guarded front gate using small-arms fire.
Extreme anti-American groups are enjoying newfound support within Saudi Arabia. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdelaziz urged Saudis to help arrest the 19 suspected terrorists. Hours later, Saudi dissidents say, three prominent clerics of a new generation of al Qaeda supporters -- Ali al Khudeir, Nasser al Fahd and Ahmed al Khalidi -- issued a fatwa, or religious decree, that called on believers to do just the opposite: provide the fugitives with shelter and help.
"It's a new environment," said Saad al Faqih, head of the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, the main nonviolent Saudi dissident organization abroad. "There is a completely different scene as far as the hostility against the U.S. -- and the society itself is providing a natural shelter and protection to al Qaeda members."
The Central Intelligence Agency believes that several of the men who escaped the Saudi raid were connected to al Qaeda, including Abdulrahman Mansour Jabarah, the brother of a suspected al Qaeda operative taken into U.S. custody last year.
Officials in Washington said they had been told by Saudi officials that one suspect believed to be connected to Monday night's bombings was in custody. A team of Federal Bureau of Investigation officials, led by Deputy Assistant Director John Pistole, is headed for Riyadh to assist in examining the scene for clues.
The suspected al Qaeda links suggest that the terror group has maintained or restored a system for planning and coordinating multiple attacks. The targets of the attacks suggest the group still wants to pursue Mr. bin Laden's agenda of driving Americans out, and shaking the Saudi government.
Many in Saudi Arabia fear there is worse to come. Small-scale attacks on Westerners and shootouts between terror suspects and police have become increasingly frequent in the once-tranquil nation. Mohsen al Awajy, a prominent Islamist activist in Riyadh and a former political prisoner, warned that Monday's blasts are just the opening shot of a new al Qaeda offensive -- in part designed to prove that America hasn't destroyed it by arresting masterminds of previous attacks.
"We are worrying about the future and are expecting more," Mr. Awajy said. "This may be a new generation of al Qaeda, an al Qaeda No. 2 -- with the same ideology. It's a real challenge, not only for the Saudi people, but for the American administration."
President Bush promised to hunt down those responsible for the attacks. "These despicable acts were committed by killers whose only faith is hate, and the United States will find the killers, and they will learn the meaning of American justice," he said in Indianapolis.
The challenge that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia face in rooting out support for terrorist groups is especially difficult because many Saudis -- while opposing terror attacks -- share the attackers' hostility to the U.S. Such widespread anti-Americanism makes it hard for the government to openly cooperate with the U.S., and to crack down on religious leaders who provide justification for killing Americans.
Mr. bin Laden has long used the American military presence in Saudi Arabia, the site of Islam's two holiest shrines, as a key reason for anti-American terror. Just a few weeks ago, in response to pressure both in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. to create distance between the two governments, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the withdrawal of the bulk of American forces present in the kingdom since 1990. But the fury felt by many Saudis about the American occupation of Iraq, the seat of Islam's early caliphs, has largely eclipsed any goodwill fostered by the American pullout.
While the extent of Monday's bombings surpassed anything seen in Saudi Arabia so far, the attack itself was no surprise. There have been a series of bombings of Western expatriates' cars in the kingdom in recent years -- attacks that, until a few months ago, the Saudi government blamed on "gang wars" between Western alcohol smugglers.
Earlier this month, the London-based al Majalla Arabic newspaper published what it said was an e-mail from al Qaeda's new spokesman, Thabet bin Qais. The e-mail warned about an imminent attack against Americans and said that al Qaeda has reconstituted itself using operatives with a "good cover" who are unknown to Western intelligence services. "American security agencies still are ignorant of the changes that the leadership has made," the e-mail boasted.
It was only this month that Prince Nayef stopped insisting that al Qaeda doesn't operate in the kingdom. The U.S. advised Americans on May 1 to defer nonessential travel to Saudi Arabia because terror groups "may be in the final phases of planning terror attacks against U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia." Tuesday, the U.S. ordered its nonessential personnel to leave and sharpened its warning to citizens not to travel there.